Alejandro Valverde career profile
Dubbed ‘El Imbatible’ – Mr Unbeatable – Alejandro Valverde was considered to be of the most talented all-rounders in the peloton. Be it Grand Tours, week-long stage races, or one-day Classics, Valverde was a factor – witness his 12 victories in 2008.

Valverde’s first big success on home soil came in the Vuelta a Espana, before he burst onto the international scene with a victory at Courchevel in the Tour 2005 – ahead of Lance Armstrong.

Since then Valverde has racked up further victories in the Vuelta a Espana, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Tour of Catalonia and the Dauphine Libere. But it is his link to the anti-doping investigation, Operacion Puerto, that has tainted his racing career.

Valverde was banned from racing on Italian soil for two years in May 2009 thanks to his alleged involvement in the Operacion Puerto doping affair, and was unable to take part in the 2009 Tour de France, which entered Italian soil.

In May 2010, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed Valverde a two-year suspension on the strength of the evidence used to ban him in Italy, backdated to January 1, 2010. All of his results from the 2010 season were annulled. The ban finishes on December 31, 2011.

Valverde returned to racing at the Tour Down Under, Australia, in January 2012, winning the race’s toughest stage on Old Willunga Hill.